Botswana historical place names and terminology Back to contents || Back to top Bamalete Old form of BaLete (the polity with capital now at Ramotswa). See Bamangwato for discussion of this form of the name. The form Bamalete is still found on signs in Ramotswa. Back to contents Bamangwato The Ngwato state which the British encountered in the 19th century was a multi-ethnic one. Its core group was the Ngwato clan whose totem was phuti (duiker). However it also included a variety of other groups, including other Tswana groups, Kalanga, BaKgalagari, and Basarwa. Perhaps about one-fifth of the population were Ngwato in the strict sense. (The 1942 census counted 17,850 Ngwato in a total African population of 100,987 in the Bamangwato Reserve: Schapera Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes (1952) p.

65.) According to the linguist Desmond Cole, writing in 1955, the simple form BaNgwato is more recent than the forms which became Bamangwato: ... in some of the cases where the tribal name derives from the name of a former chief, as most of them do, possessive forms are used, thus: (batho) bagammaNgwato ((people) of the mother of Ngwato), (batho) bagaMalete ((people) of Malete), (batho) bagaMotlhware ((people) of Motlhware. {Footnote 2: Sometimes, but less typically, bammaNgwato (hence the popular "Bamangwato"), baMalete and baMotlhware. Why bagammaNgwato should incorporate mma- (mother of) is not clear, though this occurs often in names of men in the Eastern dialects...} Even in these cases, nevertheless, the modern tendency is to follow the practice elsewhere and to use the simple nouns Bangwato, Balete, Batlhware... [Desmond T.

Cole, An Introduction to Tswana Grammar (Cape Town: Longman Penguin Southern Africa, 1992) [first published 1955] p. xx.] (As regards the -ga- particle, Cole notes: In typical Tswana dialects, possessives formed from singular personal nouns of class 1a require the insertion of the element -ga- between the possessive concord and the stem. However, this -ga- is omitted by many speakers, particularly in the eastern dialects. [Ibid., p. 161, section 9.4] The term 'Bamangwato' seems to have been used, in the 19th and early 20th century, for the morafe as a whole, including Tswana of other totems and non-Tswana. It is unclear what usage was before this; the core group may possibly originally have been known as BaPhuti. Some writers have used the terms Bamangwato and Ngwato to make a distinction: Without its prefix, 'Ngwato' implies a stricter ethnic distinction - the nuclear group which can trace its descent back to its founder called Ngwato.

The term 'Bamangwato', on the other hand, is used by groups of other descent to identify themselves as nationals of the Ngwato state. We are faced with the paradox that only one-fifth of the 'BamaNgwato' are in fact 'Ngwato'. [Q. N. Parsons, "Khama III, the Bamangwato, and the British, with Special Reference to 1895-1923", (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1973), Note on spelling and abbreviations.] By this usage, the term Bamangwato was used for the people as a whole. Hence the "Bamangwato tribe" was the kingdom ruled by Sekgoma I and Khama III. The term "Bamangwato" is no longer current, having been replaced by the shorter "BaNgwato", and younger Batswana often do not even understand it. Some have the impression that it was an inaccurate colonial form like "Gaberones".

(However, the form GammaNgwato has survived as a term for the Ngwato state or territory.) "BaNgwato" has the effect of replacing MmaNgwato with Ngwato as the eponym. BaNgwato is now the only current form. Many of the people who would in the old days have been "Bamangwato", however, do not identify as BaNgwato, but as Kalanga (etc.) who live in the Central District (the local government district which replaced the old Bamangwato Reserve). The probable cause of this development is that, after Independence, the chiefs lost most (though not all) of their former direct authority and the concept of a polity subject to a chief is no longer applicable. Instead, BaNgwato identity tends to be now more ethnic in nature. The traditional origin of the phuti totem is that Ngwato, the founder of the morafe, escaped his pursuers thanks to the unusual behaviour of a duiker which misled them. This story has parallels in the traditions of some other merafe and it has been suggested that the phuti totem may in fact be much older than Ngwato.

On the other hand it should be noted that there are definite historical examples of totems being changed to mark some major change such as a split. Interestingly, in current oral tradition Ngwato is sometimes replaced by a more recent figure, Khama I, with the pursuers becoming Matebele. As with Bamalete, the form Bamagwato still survives in a few places, such as in "Bamangwato Toyota" and "Bamangwato Concessions Ltd" (a mining company). Back to contents Bantu The "Bantu" languages are the members of a very large langauge-family stretching across central, Eastern and Southern Africa. (It is a part of the larger Niger-Congo group.) The name is taken from the word for "people" which appears (in various forms) in most. (In Setswana the word is "batho".) The term was sometimes used to refer to a supposed cultural group who spoke these languages, but academic opinion is that this is a mistake, and that the term should be restricted to languages. In the apartheid era, the South African government used "Bantu" as a racial term, postulating a supposed Bantu racial group.

The term "Sintu" has been proposed as an alternative - using the "Si-" (in Setswana, "Se-") prefix which indicates languages rather than groups of people, to avoid the confusing implication of the "Ba-" in "Bantu". However, this is not yet established as common. Back to contents Basarwa Setswana term used in Botswana to refer to members of the Khoisan-speaking communities. Singular: Mosarwa; language: Sesarwa. In an earlier draft of this page, I wrote "The terms Mosarwa and Basarwa are of recent origin, and were formed by the modification of the older terms Lesarwa (singular) and Masarwa (plural). The le/ma- prefixes are often considered to be derogatory in modern Setswana, whereas the mo/ba- prefixes are used for Tswana groups and sound more polite." Since then, Dr Jeff Ramsay has pointed out to me that the form "Basarwa" in fact appears to be older than "Masarwa", at least in SeKgalagari. This could indicate that the "Basarwa" were demoted to "Masarwa" as their subjugation progressed.

See also note above on the older mo/ma usage . Anthropologists generally use the terms San and Khoe (the latter in several variants), and Khoesan for the language group as a whole. "Khoe" is a more accurate representation of pronumciation and is thus increasingly replacingly the older "Khoi" etc. Khoe and San are linguistic terms, not ethnic terms, and hence "Khoe-speaking" is sometimes preferred as more precise. Neil Parsons comments: (H-SAFRICA, 13 May 2005) Khoe [is] one of three major linguistic divisions of the Khoesan languages: Khoe in and around the Kalahari middle (though later also spread to the Cape), with Northern San to the north and Southern San to the south. The great majority of so-called "Bushmen" or "Basarwa" in Botswana and probably Namibia are Khoe-speakers. The word khoe meaning "person" in Khoe languages, while San means something like "them others" or worse in Khoe languages. Hence Khoe people who are told that they are sometimes called San in the outside world can be quite virulent in their rejection of the term.

The people themselves have not as yet agreed on a single terminology. Some activists and organizations prefer "San", which is probably the most "politically correct" usage. However, in many places this term is not recognized (or is actively disliked, see above) by the people concerned, who often use either "Basarwa" or "Bushmen". Unfortunately both of these are also disliked by some. "Basarwa" seems to some merely a euphemism for "Masarwa", a name given by the oppressors. "Bushmen" sounds somewhat derogatory to many Southern Africans, though to western ears its connotations seem more positive. (This may be connected with the fact that while to westerners "bush" evokes nature in a positive/romantic sense, to Southern Africans "bush" indicates the opposite of civilized.) An example: the Dqae Qare project, a venture in cultural tourism owned and operated by the Ncoakhoe people near Ghanzi (see page on historical/cultural tourism ) is described on the publicity leaflet as "A community based tourism project of the Bushmen of D'Kar, Ghanzi District, Botswana".

Inside a note reads: "We are called San, or Bushmen. We call ourselves Ncoakhoe, the 'red people'." On the other hand, Kuela Kiema writes: "We are known by many names, most of them imposed by our oppressors. We are called San, Bushmen, Khoisan and/or Basarwa.... [In this book] I use the name Kua to refer to all the San or Basarwa as perceived by the Dcuikhoe and the Dxanakhoe." (Kuela Kiema, Tears for my land: A Social history of the Kua of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Tc'amnqoo (Gaborone: Mmegi Publishing, 2010) p. 12. Kiema has a detailed discussion of the various terms in use on pp. 67 - 71 of this book.) It should be noted that often a particular group such as the Ncoakhoe is being referred to, in which case it is normally appropriate to use their name, rather than any of the generic terms. In summary, therefore, it will be seen that no universally acceptable usage is yet available.

In the present situation, the main thing is to be sensitive to the problem, and to respect the wishes of the people concerned in particular cases. Term Back to contents Batswana Plural of Motswana, i.e. Tswana people (plural). However, in modern use the words Motswana and Batswana are also used to mean "citizen(s) of Botswana". A Kalanga-speaking citizen of Botswana is not a Tswana person, but is a Motswana in the sense of citizen. This leads to some confusion; for example in a recent local newspaper report a writer expressed puzzlement about a statement in which San were distinguished from "Batswana". To avoid this confusion, it is useful to use the form "Tswana" (even when prefixes are being used for other Bantu names) to indicate Tswana ethnicity, since "Tswana" is only used in the ethnic sense and not in the sense of "citizen of Botswana". This usage is supported to some extent by Oxford's A Dictionary of South African English (Oxford: OUP, 1996), which notes under "Tswana" that "'Bechuana' has been replaced in S. Afr. Eng.

by 'Tswana' (usually meaning a seTswana-speaking South African) and 'Batswana' (often meaning the citizens of Botswana, but see MOTSWANA ." (p. 749). Under "Motswana" it gives (1) a member of the western Sotho [Tswana] ethnic/linguistic group (2) citizen of Botswana. (p. 479). Back to contents Bechuana Old spelling of Batswana, i.e. the Tswana people. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the term was often used in English without regard to the plural implication of the Ba- prefix: e.g. "He was a Bechuana man"; "They were Bechuanas". Back to contents Bechuanaland The country of the Bechuana. Pronounced "betch-WAH-na-land". Note that (as used in early written accounts) this was not exactly the same area as modern Botswana. In the 20th century, however, it tended to mean the Bechuanaland Protectorate .

(See also British Bechuanaland .) Some early travellers used instead terms such as "Boochuana", representing the word now spelt Botswana (country of the Tswana). Back to contents Bechuanaland Protectorate The British Protectorate established initially in 1885 and later extended: this colony became independent in 1966 as Botswana. Sometimes abbreviated BP. Not to be confused with British Bechuanaland . Back to contents Boleswa Abbreviation of "Botswana-Lesotho-Swaziland". The three colonies' shared status as "High Commission Territories" (q.v.) gave them a number of common interests, especially in the period of apartheid. The three initially shared a common university, founded as the University of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland (UBBS) in 1964; later the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS). See the historical note on the main UB web-site. The three now have separate universities, which however continue to maintain special Boleswa links, notably the long-running series of Boleswa conferences in Theology and Religious Studies.

Back to contents Bophuthatswana The Tswana "homeland" established in the apartheid period, ruled by President Lucas Mangope until its collapse in 1994 shortly before the South African elections. The name was familiarly shortened to "Bop". Its territory was a bizarre patchwork of enclaves, and, as with the other "homelands", its supposed independence from South Africa was not recognized by the rest of the world. South Africa and Bophuthatswana seem to have hoped to pressure Botswana into some sort of recognition, and the name certainly succeeded in confusing many people not familiar with Southern Africa. Back to contents Botswana In Setswana, "the country of the Batswana". In modern use, the Republic of Botswana which was founded in 1966. During the colonial period the word was not normally used in English (see "Bechuanaland") but it is found in some early pre-colonial sources, written as (e.g.) "Boochuana", meaning the wider Tswana-dominated area known in late pre-colonial sources as "Bechuanaland" rather than the present (more limited) territory of the Republic of Botswana.

Back to contents Botswanan This adjective from Botswana (recorded by OED from 1967 on) is commonly seen in foreign newspapers etc., but is not favoured within Botswana. Use " Motswana/Batswana " for people, and "Botswana" for reference to the state, e.g. "the Botswana government" or "the Botswana economy". (The author of this page once discovered to his dismay that a foreign proof-reader had altered adjectival "Botswana" to "Botswanan" at the last minute and that it appeared in print under his name.) The OED correctly notes "Motswana/Batswana" but states that " Tswana " is used as the adjective for the country: this is indeed sometimes found, but "the Tswana government" or "the Tswana economy" are certainly not normal. The variant form "Botswanian" is also recorded by OED. See 2nd ed., entry Botswana. Back to contents British Bechuanaland The southern part of "Bechuanaland", which became a British colony separate from the Bechuanaland Protectorate, with which it is often confused.

After a brief period in which this southern area was a protectorate, British Bechuanaland (the area including Mafikeng) was annexed as a Colony , while the northern area was its hinterland protectorate . Such arrangements, with a Colony and a larger, secondary Protectorate territory, were found in other parts of the Empire, but in 1895 British Bechuanaland was transferred to the Cape Colony, leaving the Bechuanaland Protectorate separated. Back to contents British Bechuanaland Protectorate [incorrect form] There was a Colony of British Bechuanaland , which became part of Cape Colony in 1895, and a separate Protectorate, the Bechuanaland Protectorate , which became Botswana in 1966. Confusion between the two has sometimes led to references to the non-existent "British Bechuanaland Protectorate". The "British" in "British Bechuanaland" distinguished it as being a Colony, and hence British soil, unlike the Protectorate, and so the incorrect addition of the word to the name of the Protectorate should be avoided. Back to contents Colony This term is slightly ambiguous.

In the technical sense, a Colony in the British Empire was a territory which had become British soil (in Africa, usually by annexation), with its inhabitants being British subjects, as opposed to a Protectorate , which was theoretically "foreign" land under British control. In this sense, Basutoland (Lesotho) was a Colony while the B.P. and Northern Rhodesia (after 1924) were Protectorates. However, the term "colony" is also used in a generic sense for all colonized dependent territories; in this sense all three would be "colonies". The technical difference in status was not usually of great importance in how colonies were treated. (There were also other types of British dependency which would mostly be "colonies" in this sense.) British Bechuanaland , not to be confused with the Bechuanaland Protectorate, was a Colony in the technical sense. In fact the "British" in the name indicated this distinction (this is found in several colony names). Back to contents Gaberones In nineteenth-century practice, Tswana capitals were often referred to by Europeans by the name of the kgosi (king or chief).

This was partly because of the fact that these settlements relocated fairly frequently (see Neil Parsons, "The Abandonment of Phalatswe" ) and so place names were less stable than names of dikgosi. Thus, the BaNgwato capital, at Soshong, Phalatswe or Serowe, could be referred to as "Khama's village" or simply "Khama's". The village of the BaTlokwa was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries therefore known as "Gaberone's" after the wily and extraordinarily long-lived Kgosi Gaborone. Just across the Notwane from this village was a major colonial base (or "Camp"): this became known as Gaberones, the apostrophe somehow being lost. At Independence, Gaberones was selected as the site for a new capital to replace Mafeking (which was not even in the country). This was named Gaborone, the correct spelling of the late kgosi's name. The traditional village of the BaTlokwa is now known as Tlokweng.

A fairly common convention in Botswana historical writing is to use "Gaberones" for the government base, and "Gaborone" for the modern city. As well as avoiding anachronism, this has the advantage of reminding the reader of the difference between a government Camp and a city. "Gaborone", incidentally, means "It [chieftainship] is not unbecoming". Back to contents Gaborone The capital city of the Republic of Botswana, built just before Independence (as the capital could hardly remain in Mafeking, and Lobatse, the earlier favourite, had been rejected for various reasons). Gaborone was built next to the old Gaberones (q.v.) government camp, the area of which is now known in Gaborone as "the Village" - a rather pleasant area in which many UB staff live. Gabs Abbreviation of "Gaberones", still used locally for Gaborone. (For example, it appears in the Botswana telephone directory.) Back to contents High Commission Territories The three territories of Basutoland (Lesotho), Swaziland, and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The name refers to the peculiar system of colonial adminsistration.

Whereas most British African colonies had a governor who reported to London, the HC Territories had a Resident Commissioner who came under the High Commissioner for South Africa. This was a somewhat accidental hang-over from the nineteenth century; the three being the remnants of an origianlly more extensive system of regional supervision by the High Commissioner as a sort of super-governor. It led to "Boleswa" (q.v.) links which still continue. Back to contents Kalahari The "Kalahari desert" in the centre and west of Botswana is not a true sand desert, and is sometimes called a "thirstland". The original significance of the word is disputed. In modern Setswana the word is "Kgalagadi", and this has sometimes been described as "more correct". However, the older (Sotho-Tswana) populations of the area are not Setswana speakers, but a group known as BaKgalagari (or BaKgalagadi, or BaKalahari), and in their langauge the word is closer to "Kalahari" than to "Kgalagadi". The BaKgalagari have remained a marginalized group, and the language is not yet well-established in a written form.

I have seen "SheKgalagari" in a recent multi-lingual church publication. The Setswana forms "BaKgalagadi" and "SeKgalagadi" are probably still the most common in academic use. It is notable that early European visitors (even in areas now regarded as Setswana) recorded a number of words in forms which look more like modern SeKgalagari than modern Setswana. (E.g. Morimo = modern Setswana Modimo, God.) Back to contents Masarwa Older form, with connotations of out-group and/or subordination, of "Basarwa". See Basarwa above. As with " Bechuana ", in pre-colonial and colonial times this plural form was sometimes used in English as if a singular: e.g. "She was a Masarwa." As with "Bechuana", this (logically erroneous) usage can be found in the work of writers who were fully aware that it was actually a plural, and in some cases spoke Setswana, so no conclusions can safely be drawn about the linguistic knowledge of the user.

Back to contents Matebele, Matabele Now refers to the Ndebele of Zimbabwe, but it does not seem to be a Setswana corruption of Ndebele. Rather Matebele appears to be a Sotho-Tswana term applied to Nguni invaders which refers to their tactic of crouching behind large shields (either "go teba" sink or "thebe" shield) -- this according to the OED. Ndebele may possible derive from Matebele. In Botswana, the term "Matebele" has often been used in a loose sense for foreigners who might or might not actually be Ndebele. Hence references to "Matebele" should not necessarily be automatically "corrected" to Ndebele. Monare Setswana term for missionary, from Afrikaans meneer ("sir"). Often given untranslated in 19th century texts in English. Back to contents Morafe Setswana word often translated "tribe" or "nation". Plural merafe.

Pre-colonial Batswana were organized in a number of relatively small independent kingdoms or chiefdoms, showing a definite fissiparous tendency, but also showing an ability to absorb and recoalesce. Refugees etc. joined as junior partners. This pattern assisted the merafe in the north and west to successfully integrate large numbers of non-Tswana during the 19th C. in conditions of varying levels of subordination. By the later 19th C. the largest merafe, such as GammaNgwato under Khama III were emerging as multi-ethnic but Tswana-dominated states. Thus as applied to the Tswana-ruled precolonial states of the Bamangwato, BaTawana etc. and their colonial-era successors "morafe" is perhaps better rendered "polity" since they were essentially political rather than ethnic units. Prefixes The grammatical difference between English and the Bantu/Sintu languages has led to a variety of practices. Prefix omitted: This style is the most common in English writing world-wide, and is favoured by anthropologists. Thus "Sotho" is used without prefixes.

"They spoke Sotho." "They were Sotho." This is probably the style most often used in most historical work published in the west. However, it is sometimes disliked by speakers of the languages, on the grounds that the form is spurious - that is, there is no word "Sotho" as such in the Sesotho language, only the words "Basotho", "Sesotho" etc. Hence "Sotho" is like talking about the "Engl" people and language. Prefix included, word capitalized as a single English word. E.g. "Setswana", "Motswana". This is the most common style in Botswana (used in both official and journalistic writing in English), and is used in T.Tlou and A. Campbell, A History of Botswana . Prefix included but not capitalized, stem capitalized. E.g. "He spoke seTswana." This is found (e.g.) in some articles in Botswana Notes and Records Prefix included, both prefix and stem capitalized. E.g. "They spoke SeTswana" This is used in The Birth of Botswana . All these have advantages. Writing in Botswana, Lesotho etc.

has long been especially likely to retain prefixes, including prefixes of non-Sotho-Tswana languages (e.g. "the Wayeyi"). The fourth option, "SeTswana", has the advantage that it fits in with both the logic of English grammar (by capitalizing the first letter of a name) and the logic of Bantu grammar (by capitalizing the stem). The author of these notes favours using this style but with the option to vary it when convenient (as in "Sotho-Tswana" etc. etc.) Some special problems: Including the prefix can present problems when less familiar Bantu languages are being referred to, as the prefixes will vary from language to language. Hence prefixes are least likely to be retained when writing about a wide range of languages. "Batswana" has the dual meaning of "Tswana-speaking people" and "citizens of Botswana". Hence the trend to use "Tswana" for the former meaning (even if the writer is using prefixes otherwise) in order to avoid ambiguity. See Batswana . Back to contents Protectorate The concept of a Protectorate, an arrangement by which one state had some sort of oversight or control over another state or territory, developed over time.

The earliest type was that of the control of states which continued to exist as subordinate entities, but in the 19th century Britain increasingly used Protectorates in Africa as a form of control which avoided the responsibilities which went with actual annexation (see Colony ). At the end of the 19th century, partly as a result of the takeover of Bechuanaland, the distinction became increasingly blurred, and in the 20th century protectorates differed little from colonies in law. Its inhabitants were British Protected Persons rather than subjects, and in an important case (The King v. Earl of Crewe: Ex parte Sekhome[1910] 2 K.B. 576) it was ruled that (at least in the B.P.) they lacked certain rights they would have had in a colony. The fact of the B.P. having been a Protectorate rather than a colony is frequently but mistakenly given as the reason for the relatively low level of British interference.

That the key really lies in the circumstances of the territory can be seen from the fact that Basutoland (Lesotho) was an annexed Colony, yet treated similarly to the B.P., whereas Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), a colony with powerful settler influence, was a protectorate. The history of protectorate status is a very difficult subject which requires study of both historical and legal technicalities, and caution is advised. The classic work is W. Ross Johnston, Sovereignty and Protection: A Study of British Jurisdictional Imperialism in the Late Nineteenth Century (1973). For the B.P. see A.J.G.M. Sanders, Bechuanaland and the Law in Politicians' Hands (Botswana Society 1992). The High Commission Territories were often referred to informally as "the Protectorates". Back to contents South Africa Until 1910 "South Africa" was a general term for the region, like "West Africa" today. Britain tried to manage the region as a whole through the "High Commissioner for South Africa".

In 1910 four British colonies - the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal - were combined as a new Dominion, the Union of South Africa. From this point "South Africa" began to be restricted to this state, but the process took a long time. Doris Lessing's characters, living in Southern Rhodesia, talk in the 1930s of being in "South Africa". The ambiguity was significant in the case of the three High Commission Territories, as the Union of South Africa hoped and expected to "incorporate" them as the 1909 South Africa Act had envisaged). In 1961 South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth. The Union became the "Republic of South Africa" (RSA), which should not be written "South African Republic", as the South African Republic (q.v.) was one of the 19th century Boer republics. The RSA was readmitted to the Commonwealth after the end of apartheid. The Orange River Colony and the Transvaal were the former Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic.

Back to contents South African Republic The official title of the Boer republic in the Transvaal. The name is abbreviated "ZAR" (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek - the spelling is Dutch rather than Afrikaans, which did not become an official language until the twentieth century). "ZAR" is also the abbreviation for "South African Rands". Back to contents Tiger Leopards were at one time usually called "tigers" in Southern Africa. This usage was very common in the early twentieth century, but seems to have declined in mid-century. By the late twentieth century old references to "tigers" often caused confusion. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela recalls how the prisoners on Robben Island had a long-running and energetic debate on whether there had ever been tigers in Africa. Back to contents Totem In Tswana (and many other African) societies, each individual has a totem, which is usually an animal. In Tswana society totems are inherited from the father and thus pass like English surnames. The totem animal had traditionally a status of veneration and avoidance: in particular, it was important not to eat one's totem.

In modern Tswana society this is not as strictly observed. Merafe have their totems, which are the totems of the core group, but not all members of the morafe will necessarily share this. This reflects largely the way in which the larger Tswana merafe were built up out of various groups in a complex multi-ethnic system. It tends to be assumed that groups with the same totem are related, though this is not necessarily true. Totems have occasionally been changed to mark some major change: a traditional example is the adoption of the duiker (phuti) by the BaNgwato (see above), but there are other examples within historical record. The older Tswana group names tend to refer to the totem: e.g. BaKwena, they of the crocodile (Kwena) (although Bakwena tradition posits an eponymous Kwena).

The word "go bina" (usually translated "dance") is used in connection with totems, as Livingstone noted: They also use the word "bina", to dance, in reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so that, when you wish to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, "What do you dance?" It would seem as if that had been a part of the worship of old. [David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa , chapter 1.] No direct evidence of such a dance ceremony, however, has been found in Tswana culture, and other writers have argued that the word may never have meant "dance" in this context. It is interesting to note that among the Khoesan peoples of Botswana there are indeed important animal dances in which, for example, a dancer dances the eland, the lion, etc. Back to contents Tribe This term causes a great deal of confusion. In the pre-colonial and colonial periods, there was a general idea among Europeans that African society was "tribal", without, however, a clearly agreed definition of what this meant.

Most commonly "tribe" has been used to denote ethnic groups, such as Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda, and it is in this sense that the pejorative term "tribalism" is understood. (Modern Africans are often ambivalent about the term, pointing out that in Europe the Serbs are "ethnic" whereas in Africa groups are "tribal". Europeans use "tribal" for their own conflicts only when wishing to harshly condemn the participants, as in some impatient British comment on Northern Ireland.) However, in the Bechuanaland Protectorate tribe was used to translate morafe. While "morafe" does have a general sense of "nation", the 19th C. and colonial-era merafe had become polities of multi-ethnic composition. (See merafe ). Hence the "Bamangwato Tribe" was the multi-ethnic polity ruled by Khama III and Tshekedi Khama. Official post-independence Botswana usage has continued this meaning of "tribe".

However, the term has also been used in Botswana (both before and after Independence) to denote ethnicity, as in for example "the Kalanga tribe" or "the Wayei tribe" - ethnic groups which in colonial times were part of multi-ethnic Tswana-ruled polities. Discussions, such as the recent debates in Botswana over the proposal to extend the membership of the House of Chiefs, has often been seriously confused by failure to distinguish the two quite different senses. Botswana: Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities AIDS: Botswana's Biggest Challenge Geography Twice the size of Arizona, Botswana is in south-central Africa, bounded by Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Most of the country is near-desert, with the Kalahari occupying the western part of the country. The eastern part is hilly, with salt lakes in the north. Government Parliamentary republic. History The earliest inhabitants of the region were the San, who were followed by the Tswana. About half the country today is ethnic Tswana. The term for the country's people, Batswana, refers to national rather than ethnic origin.

Encroachment by the Zulu in the 1820s and by Boers from Transvaal in the 1870s and 1880s threatened the peace of the region. In 1885, Britain established the area as a protectorate, then known as Bechuanaland. In 1961, Britain granted a constitution to the country. Self-government began in 1965, and on Sept. 30, 1966, the country became independent. Botswana is Africa's oldest democracy. The new country maintained good relations with its white-ruled neighbors but gradually changed its policies, harboring rebel groups from South Rhodesia as well as some from South Africa. Although Botswana is rich in diamonds, it has high unemployment and stratified socioeconomic classes. In 1999, the nation suffered its first budget deficit in 16 years because of a slump in the international diamond market. Yet Botswana remains one of the wealthiest and most stable countries on the continent. After 17 years in power, President Ketumile Masire retired in 1997, and Festus Mogae, an Oxford-educated economist, became the new president.

Mogae has won high marks from the international financial community for continuing to privatize Botswana's mining and industrial operations. Botswana Map / Geography of Botswana / Map of Botswana - Worldatlas.com Print this map The first known inhabitants of present day Botswana were nomadic foragers, Khoe & San speakers, who lived, passed through and hunted here in small, egalitarian families for millennia prior to the arrival of the Tswana and Bantu people. Prior to being organized as a British protectorate in 1885, Botswana (though not yet a nation) operated in a multicultural coexistence in which small-scale trade between tribes flourished. Population pressures and colonial rivalries prompted the formation of Bechuanaland which remained a poor and peripheral land. Animosity between the Boer settlers, Shona inhabitants and Ndebele tribes flared in the late 19th century, and in 1885 Botswana was put under British protection. At the turn of the 20th century, the Union of South Africa was formed from the main British colonies within the region, however, the Bechuanaland Protectorate were not included.

In 1920, the evolution of tribal government and expansion of British central authority resulted in the formation of two councils representing Africans and Europeans that regulated tribal rule and powers. Botswana began to push for independence in the early 1960s, and by 1964 Britain accepted their bid for a democratic self-government. The constitution was drafted in 1965, and paved the way for the first general elections and ultimate independence on September 30, 1966. Today this pro-western country is one of the most progressive and successful on the African continent, with dramatically improved overall health care and educational systems. Most of the country's population congregates in the eastern savanna grasslands, along its borders with South Africa and Zimbabwe . In December of 1999, a long running dispute of the northern border with Namibia became the subject of a ruling by the International Court of Justice, and in the end Botswana was granted Kasikili Island. Botswana's economy is given a serious boost by being the world's third-largest producer of diamonds, and a large exporter of beef to Europe .

In addition, it has a solid level of tourism, highlighted by a series of national parks, including the Chobe NP, and the Okavango Delta wildlife areas in the north. Weaknesses include a continuing high birthrate and the insidious spread of AIDS. See Also

Question: What was the former name of Botswana?
Answer: Bechuanaland